New Owner!!!!!!! Help needed!!

[fourcheeze]

3) You could get a model report done yourself! This would only cost £15K for the front impact test, and the cost of writing off the vehicle! But the upside is that you would then own the model report and could rent it out at £1,000 a request!

This doesn't make sense to me for 3 reasons:

1) The SVA is a "Single Vehicle Approval" test. How can it be a single vehicle test if it requires you to crash one? That would by definition require at least 2 vehicles (assuming that you actually wanted to drive one afterwards)

2) There was recently a variant on Scrapheap Challenge on the TV where people built/adapted vehicles which then required an SVA test. No crash test seems to have been involved there despite one team making a 4 wheel vehicle from scratch.

3) The Bimta page referred to above says:

"How much will a Model report cost if you buy your own report?
An emission test and report costs about £1000 (if it passes first time), a noise test and report costs about £600 (if it passes first time) and a comparison test and report costs about £750. If you want to go really overboard, a crash test and report costs about £11,120 (plus the vehicle)"

Doesn't "if you want to go really overboard" imply that not going overboard is an option and therefore one would only need to spend about £2k or so on the test?

[alphabetter]

This doesn't make sense to me for 3 reasons:
....

Since when did the law have to make sense?

Basically as explained in the documents linked there are different rules for:
1) Mass produced cars that are imported from outside the EU
2) Home built one-offs
3) Modified cars that are based on the chassis of an already approved car.

The rules for the first class (which includes a Bongo) are much tougher "An enhanced SVA" and include the requirement for a crash test.

Home built one-offs don't need a crash test (obviously).

Modified cars don't need to be tested at all provided certain parts of the original are kept intact.

'Elf and safety innit.

[smartmonkey]

The single vehicle approval refers to the fact that are testing an individual vehicle - not a model type. The fact that they need crash data on certain market cars is unfortunate but doesn't affect the fact that they subsequently test individual cars.

Poor system but we are stuck with it.

[fourcheeze]

Since when did the law have to make sense?

Yeah, I know, you're right, but something inside me wants to find meaning in these things.

http://www.directgov.gov.uk/en/Motoring ... DG_4022105

makes fascinating reading - no really it does

It looks a lot to me like it says there that the expensive stuff (front and side impact tests) are only required for vehicles built after 1st Oct 2003. Perhaps someone else could read it to confirm (or otherwise) my sanity. Furthermore a little way down from there it seems to suggest that compliance can be shown in 4 ways, one is the Model Report, another is:

" Showing that comparable non-European standards are met. (Comparable Standards)"

Maybe I am trying to believe in Santa Claus and Tooth Fairies all rolled into one, but it seems to me that Japan is a country with rigourous standards, hence this could be possible.

This DfT page repeats a lot of that info and elaborates on Comparable Standards:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/vehicle ... eme?page=4

Especially this bit:

"Where vehicles have been imported from Japan, evidence that the vehicle was approved there will be taken to confirm that the vehicle meets some of the requirements (Comparable Standards)."

and

"Where a vehicle from Japan has a date of manufacture on or after 1st January 1997, additional evidence will be needed to demonstrate that the vehicle is capable of meeting the emissions and noise standards"

So it looks to me as though you'd only need to commission the lab to do those two tests.

[alphabetter]

It looks a lot to me like it says there that the expensive stuff (front and side impact tests) are only required for vehicles built after 1st Oct 2003.

It does indeed - perhaps you can indeed escape this requirement. I guess you need to see if your test centre agrees.